Now in its second year, the HellHOT! New Music Festival is Hong Kong's premiere festival for contemporary music. Taking place in the SAR's hottest summer month, HellHOT! remains the city's sole festival that is committed exclusively to presenting contemporary music by living composers, and aspires to be the region's hotbed for musical experimentation.
 
Contemporary music thrives on community effort: some of the most important composers and new music organizations of our time had modest, grass-root beginnings. This year's motto "Doing New Music Now" speaks to the urgency of grass-root art practices and music making in this moment in our city's history, and with a curatorial focus that recounts the now and looks to the future.
 
The 2011 edition of HellHOT! will feature a total of 8 concerts / events, with 28 Hong Kong premieres and works by over 40 composers from Hong Kong and abroad. This year's featured composers include such international hotshots as Philip Glass, Milton Babbitt, Luciano Berio and James Tenney, among others. HellHOT! is equally committed to showcasing local talents. Emerging Hong Kong composers Austin Yip and Lam Lai were commissioned by the festival to create exciting electro-acoustic compositions.
 
This year's festival features an impressive lineup of new music ensemble overseas, including: the MIVOS Quartet (USA), Opus Two (USA), Ensemble Offspring (Australia). The festival will kick off with a first-time Hong Kong performance of Schoenberg's Suite Op.29 performed by the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, conducted by new music legend Paul Zukosky. The festival will close with the Hong Kong premiere of Philip Glass' String Quartet No. 4 & 5, as well as electro-acoustic music by some of New York's hottest young composers, performed by the MIVOS Quartet.
 
About the Festival
 
HellHOT! was founded by composer Aenon Loo, violist William Lane and composer/multimedia artist Samson Young. The three were bothered by the lack of forward-looking festival programming, as well as the general low visibility of contemporary and experimental music-making in the city. With a modest grant from the Arts Development Council, in 2010 the three took it upon themselves to fill this void by creating the region's very first music festival that is committed exclusively to presenting contemporary music by living composers. Despite having only a staff of one and extremely limited funding, HellHOT! has since grown into a month-long festival with over 40 local and international featured composers.
 
HellHOT! aspires to set itself apart from the city's other festivals and concert hall institutions in two ways: (1) HellHOT! is committed to featuring Hong Kong artists, with at least half of its programs consisted of composers and/or performers from Hong Kong; (2) HellHOT! reflects not the past but the now and the future, over 80% of its featured compositions being Hong Kong or world premieres.

HellHOT! New Music Festival 2011
July 26 - Aug 20
Executive Director: Aenon Loo
Founders and Artistic Directors: Aenon Loo, William Lane, Samson Young